Florida lemon law buyback calculator

Find the row nearest your price and the column nearest your mileage. These are computed from Ch. 681, Fla. Stat. (2025) by the same code that runs the calculator above — not typed in by hand, which is how published tables drift from the statute they cite.

Figures are the allowance for use only. What reaches you is this subtracted from the refund, then your loan settled — use the calculator above for that.

On a $45,000 vehicle in Florida, the deduction is $2,250 at 6,000 miles, $7,500 at 20,000 and $15,000 at 40,000. Florida sets no ceiling, so it keeps climbing in a straight line.

Read the mileage column carefully for Florida: it is the odometer at your settlement or arbitration hearing, not at your first repair visit. An owner who was at 6,000 miles when the trouble started and 20,000 by the hearing is looking at $7,500, not $2,250 — a $5,250 difference that every "miles at first repair" calculator misses.

The price column is the base selling price on the invoice, before taxes, government fees and dealer fees — a smaller figure than the price Florida refunds, which includes your trade-in allowance. Using the full purchase price here overstates the deduction.

A buyback is not a used-car offer. It is a statutory refund, assembled from specific components the law names, less one deduction. Most calculators skip the components and model only the deduction — which is why their numbers come in low. Where Florida leaves something out, the row below says who you get it from instead rather than just saying no.

Every state sets a point past which the law stops giving the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt. Reaching it does not decide your case — the defect must still substantially impair the vehicle’s use, value or safety — but it shifts the argument.

• 3 repair visits for the same unfixed problem.
• No reduced count for safety defects. Florida sets the same bar whatever the problem is — safety bears on whether the defect is serious enough to count at all, not on how many attempts are required.
• 30 cumulative days out of service, counted across the whole ownership, not per visit.
• The problem must first have appeared within 24 months.
• You must have notified the manufacturer directly at least once, not only the dealer. Keep proof.
• Three repairs are not enough on their own in Florida. After the third attempt at the same problem you must notify the manufacturer in writing, by registered or express mail, and allow it a final attempt to cure (§ 681.104(1)(a)). The manufacturer then has 10 days to respond and 10 days from delivery to fix it. If it fails to respond in time, the final-attempt requirement drops away.
• At 15 cumulative days out of service you must notify the manufacturer in writing (§ 681.104(1)(b)). That is a notice duty, not the buyback threshold — the presumption still needs 30 days under § 681.104(3)(b). A page-1 Florida calculator currently presents 15 days as a qualifying path; it qualifies you to post a letter.

Who chooses refund or replacement: Florida gives you the choice: § 681.104(2)(a) says "the consumer has an unconditional right to choose a refund rather than a replacement motor vehicle."

Covered: New vehicles sold in Florida to transport persons or property; Demonstrators, where a manufacturer’s warranty was issued as a condition of sale; Leased vehicles on a written lease of one year or more where the lessee is responsible for repairs; Recreational vehicles — though not their living facilities, and on their own 60,000-mile divisor and 60-day clock; A person the vehicle is transferred to for personal, family or household use during the rights period.

Not covered: Used vehicles — Chapter 681 reaches "a new vehicle"; Trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight; Motorcycles, mopeds and electric bicycles; Off-road vehicles and vehicles run only upon tracks; The living facilities of a recreational vehicle — flooring, plumbing, roof air conditioner, furnace, generator and the rest of the enumerated list; Vehicles not used primarily for personal, family or household purposes, including business fleets; Defects resulting from accident, abuse, neglect, modification or alteration.

A civil action must be commenced within 1 year after the Lemon Law rights period expires, or within 1 year after the final action of an arbitration or the department (§ 681.112(2)) — so absent arbitration, an effective outside limit of 36 months from original delivery. That is NOT the deadline that usually bites first: a request for arbitration before the Board must be filed no later than 60 days after the rights period expires, or within 30 days after final action of a certified procedure, whichever is later (§ 681.109(4)). Missing the 60-day window can forfeit the arbitration path — and with it the § 681.1095(4) prerequisite — long before the 1-year limitations period runs.

What you have to do before suing

Arbitration is a prerequisite to suit in Florida, and it has its own earlier deadline. § 681.1095(4): "Before filing a civil action on a matter subject to s. 681.104, the consumer must first submit the dispute to the department, and to the board if such dispute is deemed eligible." Where the manufacturer runs a state-certified procedure, § 681.108(1) requires you to use that first — "state-certified" means it meets state and federal requirements, not that Florida runs it. If the department rejects your dispute you may sue directly (§ 681.109(7)).

• Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act, Chapter 681, Florida Statutes — Ch. 681, Fla. Stat. (2025), The Florida Senate. Read 2026-08-10.
• Lemon Law Remedy Calculation Guideline — Fla. Off. Att’y Gen., remedy calculation guideline (construing § 681.102(19)), Florida Office of the Attorney General (Department of Legal Affairs). Read 2026-08-10.

Each state runs a different formula, so these are separate calculators rather than one tool with a dropdown:

• California lemon law buyback calculator — the deduction is the purchase price × miles ÷ 120,000, with no ceiling.
• Pennsylvania lemon law buyback calculator — the deduction is capped at 10¢ a mile or 10% of the purchase price, whichever is less.
• New York lemon law buyback calculator — the first 12,000 miles draw no deduction at all; beyond that it is the purchase price × the excess miles ÷ 100,000.
• Illinois lemon law buyback calculator — illinois sets no deduction formula: the statute describes the allowance in words and supplies no number, no denominator and no cap.

A buyback is the end of a story that usually starts much earlier — with a car that was already generating complaints, or with a decision about whether to buy one that someone else handed back.

• How to tell if a car is a lemon — the repair-record and paperwork signals that matter before you ever reach a statutory threshold like Florida’s.
• The Car Complaint Index — NHTSA complaints per 1,000 sold for every model we track, ranked within class. Useful for seeing whether your problem is the car or your car.
• Should you buy a lemon law buyback car? — what happens to the vehicle after a repurchase, and why nobody can honestly quote you a resale discount percentage.
• Florida car tax, title and license calculator — the tax and fee figures a Florida buyback puts back in your hands, itemised and cited.
• All lemon law buyback calculators — the national hub, with the same car run through every state we model side by side.